BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Christopher "Chris" Yarran (born 19 December 1990) is an Australian rules footballer with the Carlton Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).
Yarran is an indigenous footballer who played his junior years in Western Australia. He was primarily a small forward in his junior days, but he occasionally spent time in the midfield and defence. As a seventeen-year-old, Yarran gained selection into theSwan Districts senior team, where he played thirteen games and scored 39 goals, including seven on debut and eight in three finals matches.[1][2] He played with Western Australia in the Under 18s championships and scored eight goals in four games.[3]He was also a member of the AIS/AFL Academy Squad[4] and captained a team from the Clontarf Football Academy in a game against a visiting South African Under 19's side in February 2007.[5]
Yarran was a noted talent and was expected to be drafted high,[6] with some considering him to be the one of most talented players available in the draft.[7] He would ultimately be selected by the Carlton Football Club with its first round selection (No. 6 overall) in the 2008 AFL National Draft. At draft time, Carlton coach Brett Ratten said that Yarran could assist fellow small forward Eddie Betts, and help to reduce the defensive pressure on then full-forward Brendan Fevola.[8]
Yarran played his first senior game for Carlton in Round 7, 2009 against Fremantle. He played sporadically for Carlton during the season, managing six games, but played most of his games with Carlton's VFL-affiliate, the Northern Bullants, including a five-goal performance in the VFL preliminary final. In 2010, Yarran played sixteen games for Carlton, and earned an AFL Rising Star nomination. Throughout that season, Yarran formed part of a short-lived forward-line structure consisting of tall full-forwardSetanta Ó hAilpín, and three small forwards (Betts, Yarran, and Yarran's Swan Districts team-mate Jeff Garlett) who became known as "Setanta's Little Helpers".[9]
In 2011, coach Brett Ratten abandoned the tactic of playing three small forwards in favour of two: Betts and Garlett. Yarran was moved onto the half-back line, and within the year became a damaging rebounding defender, able to use his speed, agility and accurate disposal to set up much of Carlton's rebound play.[10] Yarran played twenty-three games for the season[11] and finished tenth in the John Nicholls Medal.[12] His output in the 2012 season was interrupted by a turf toeinjury,[13] but he was the winner of the Goal of the Year, for a goal in Round 1 in which he gathered a loose ball on the half-forward flank, evaded three Richmond opponents and skirted the boundary line before goaling from 50m.[14]
Yarran featured in the award-winning 2010 documentary film, Three Boys Dreaming, which follows the lives of three young indigenous footballers over a four-year period.
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